Land deal buoys convention center

Agreement may be catalyst for $753 million expansion

A land deal has been worked out that could pave the way for a $753 million expansion of the San Diego Convention Center. The expansion site, which would also contain a 500-room hotel, is directly behind the center.
— Earnie Grafton / UNION-TRIBUNE

A land deal has been worked out that could pave the way for a $753 million expansion of the San Diego Convention Center. The expansion site, which would also contain a 500-room hotel, is directly behind the center.
— Earnie Grafton / UNION-TRIBUNE

CONVENTION CENTER Q&A

Why expand the convention center?

The center has been operating at full capacity, and its small size has forced officials to turn away hundreds of events in recent years. In addition, mainstays such as Comic-Con have outgrown the center and may leave San Diego for larger venues if an expansion isn’t on the horizon.

How will it be paid for?

The most likely funding mechanisms include increasing the city’s hotel-motel tax or creating a new tax on food and beverage sales. The city could also create a special assessment district. There’s also a chance that the Port of San Diego or the city’s downtown redevelopment arm could contribute.

What are the next steps?

Once the land is acquired, officials with the city, convention center and port district will work to identify possible funding streams, design the project, conduct an environmental review and seek public input. The goal is to seek approval from the California Coastal Commission in the next 18 to 24 months.

A complicated land deal has been reached that bolsters hope for a $753 million expansion of the San Diego Convention Center, a move viewed as crucial to preventing blockbuster events such as Comic-Con from fleeing to a different city.

Officials with the Port of San Diego and the convention center have agreed to work together for the expansion and a long-desired hotel after negotiating a deal with a private business group that controls the 7-acre bayfront plot in downtown San Diego where the two projects would be built.

The deal, which the Port Commission is expected to approve Tuesday, would remove a major barrier for the proposed expansion. Officials say the larger center, projected to open in 2015, would maintain San Diego’s status as a dominant player in the convention circuit.

“This is the first step that you have to do,” Mayor Jerry Sanders said. “You have to get everybody on the same page … and then we can go through and start refining costs, start refining what the design is going to be. But you can’t even do those things until you get this initial thing done.”

The expansion has been sought for nearly a decade. The center began operating at capacity in 2001, shortly after completion of its $216 million first expansion, and has turned away nearly 400 events in recent years. More than 80 percent of those events could have been accommodated if the venue had been larger.

The problem has been made vividly clear in recent months as Comic-Con organizers consider whether to move their pop-culture phenomenon out of San Diego, their longtime home, and send their 126,000 attendees to larger venues in Anaheim or Los Angeles for 2013 and beyond.

“The clock is ticking, as you’ve seen played out on all the comments about Comic-Con leaving San Diego because the center is too small,” she said. “This would show that we are moving forward and that San Diego is serious about an expansion of the convention center.”